A Christian interested in teaching and doing research
in a college/university setting will face some challenges which are
common to all academic institutions and others that depend on the type of
institution. Whether one contemplates a secular or Christian
job it is important to assess how you would fit into
institutional culture.

Christian institutions appear more safe and offer
fellowship with those of like faith and ethics. Yet schools and financial
supporters have influenced religious standards that may pose problems for
the unwary scholarly investigator. The fall-out over the 2011
Christianity Today
article and editorial on Adam and Eve is the latest example of
conflict and job loss involving academic freedom in Christian
institutions.

Secular colleges and Universities offer different
challenges to the Christian. There one is judged by peers and a
culture which picks up on ones Christians convictions and associations
especially those that challenge a secular culture. Tenure and promotion
are the places where subtle distinctions are made - guilt by association
or tent maker approaches however subtle - may lead to eventual dismissal.
One may win a civil law suit but it is a hollow victory.

When
considering a teaching job seek
advice from faculty members at your undergraduate and graduate
school and ask Christians associated with the school you are
considering about departmental culture before taking a leap.
Consider your personality - being a Christian radical is especially
hazardous to academic health!

The writer was fortunate to enjoy a career in a
Christian institution which supported academic freedom.--JWH

Christians in Academe: a Reply

Recently, Timothy Larsen of Wheaton College published an essay entitled "No
Christianity Please, We’re Academics,” in
which he presented anecdotal evidence of discrimination against
Christians and called for more thorough study to determine whether
they represented isolated incidents or were part of a broader trend.
Larsen concluded on a note of despair, believing that his call would
fall on deaf ears — and the comments he has received so far mostly
confirm his prediction.

I am among those who would view
such research as questionable — not because I think Christians have it
coming or because there are "bigger problems" (there always are), but
because I believe the question is ill-posed. First of all, by using
the term "Christian," Larsen casts much too broad a net. I find it
difficult to believe, for instance, that average Roman Catholics or
mainline Protestants face any significant opposition in the classroom.
It is clear from both his institutional affiliation and his article
that he is using the term “Christian” to refer essentially to
conservative evangelical Christians (which is in itself a very
evangelical thing to do). Second, I believe the use of the term
"discrimination" is overblown and misleading, inviting inappropriate
comparisons to sexism and racism — including rhetorical appeals to
discrimination against (conservative evangelical) Christians as "the
last acceptable prejudice," falsely implying that the others have been
eradicated. ...Inside Higher EducationFull Story

Married
couples pursuing two careers face many obstacles. When both
partners work in academia, the situation can look downright bleak.
Due to their limited geographical mobility, some academic couples
endure “commuter marriages,” living apart for years in different
cities. Results are varied: some have a stroke of luck and land
appointments near each other, sometimes even in the same department.
For other couples, one person leaves academia to take a more flexible
job and live with their spouse. In some cases, the couple
eventually breaks up under the strain of work and isolation. ....Full
Story

Every scientist needs someone in a position of power who has
faith in his or her abilities, to provide advice and do a bit
of trumpet-blowing on his or her behalf.

One Friday evening in the winter of 2009, I ended a 20-year
affiliation with a college of the University of London, lugging
three boxes of personal possessions and a bucket containing 12
tropical fish from my emptied office. In the face of looming
redundancy, brought on by my failure to contribute adequately to
my department's last Research Assessment Exercise submission, I
jumped before I was pushed. I left with a compromise agreement and
a lot of thoughts about how my career, initially as a reasonably
successful scientist, had come to such a sticky end. My story has
useful lessons in it, some of which are exclusive to scientific
research but some of which reflect, I think, the experience of
women in academia.
Full Story

Rachael Carson
Washington DC 1963

In two recent columns
in theChronicle of Higher
Education, Thomas H. Benton (the pen name of William Pannapacker,
associate professor of English at Hope College) warned students against
getting a PhD in the humanities. Just in case anyone missed his point,
Benton’s first column was entitled“Graduate
School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go"and
his follow-up column,“Just
Don't Go, Part 2”. We recommend reading both articles, but here was
a key passage from the first:

As things stand, I can only identify a few circumstances under which
one might reasonably consider going to graduate school in the
humanities:

You are independently wealthy, and you have no need to earn
a living for yourself or provide for anyone else.

You come from that small class of well-connected people in
academe who will be able to find a place for you somewhere.

You can rely on a partner to provide all of the income and
benefits needed by your household.

You are earning a credential for a position that you already
hold — such as a high-school teacher — and your employer is
paying for it.

Those are the only people who can safely undertake doctoral
education in the humanities. Everyone else who does so is taking an
enormous personal risk, the full consequences of which they cannot
assess because they do not understand how the academic-labor system
works and will not listen to people who try to tell them.

We weren’t satisfied with Benton’s advice, because we felt he left out
important reasons why oneshouldattempt
a PhD in the Humanities. Rather than write a response ourselves, we
contacted several Christian faculty in the humanities and askedthemhow
they would respond to the question: ...more

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Facultypresents
new and surprising findings about career differences between
female and male full-time, tenure-track, and tenured faculty in
science, engineering, and mathematics at the nation's top...

A Data-Based Assessment of
Research-Doctorate Programs in the United Statesprovides
an unparalleled dataset that can be used to assess
the quality and effectiveness of doctoral programs
based on measures important to faculty, students,
administrators, funders, and other stakeholders. ...